Judge blocks posting of scores in new state test

Eric Brazil, OF THE EXAMINER STAFF

Published 4:00 am, Friday, June 26, 1998

1998-06-26 04:00:00 PDT CALIFORNIA; OAKLAND; BERKELEY -- In a decision that could validate a defiant stance taken by the San Francisco Board of Education, a Superior Court judge has blocked release of new California achievement test results because they include the scores of students with a limited grasp of English.

Municipal Court Judge Ronald E. Quidachay on Thursday issued a restraining order blocking the release of the state Department of Education's new achievement test results.

Quidachay accepted the argument of the Oakland and Berkeley school districts, which petitioned for the order on the grounds that testing students in a language they don't understand violates the federal Equal Educational Opportunity Act.

"We said that we cannot give valid tests to children who can't read in the language the tests are given in," said Berkeley schools spokeswoman Karen Sarlo. "If you want to give a true picture of the intelligence of students at grade level based on their knowledge of their core curriculum, why test in a language they can't read or write? What are we supposed to be testing?"

The decision by Quidachay, who is sitting temporarily on the Superior Court bench, buttresses a defiant stance taken last month by the San Francisco Board of Education, which refused to test non-English speaking students in English, despite a threat by the state to withhold $11 million in funding.

The restraining order specifically prevents the release of the test results of students not fluent in English until July 16, when a hearing on the issue will be held. But it effectively blocks the entire release, because the state has not yet separated the scores by degree of linguistic fluency.

Quidachay's decision extended the results obtained by San Francisco Unified School District in an earlier successful lawsuit against the state Department of Education. The San Francisco Board of Education will be a party to the July hearing.

San Francisco contends the entire Statewide Testing and Reporting (STAR) program is invalid because it violates the state's own laws in that the test was selected and administered before standards had been adopted.

The tests on reading, mathematics, history and science were given to students in grades 2 through 11 in April, and the Wilson administration had hoped they would provide a clear, comprehensive look at where California's public schools stand compared with others nationally. High school students also were tested in science and social science, while students in lower grades were tested in spelling.

Statewide, one in four children lacks the basic English skills necessary to attend mainstream classrooms. Some urban school districts have said including scores of non-English speaking students in the overall results will give a seriously distorted picture of public education in California. And many educators charge that testing non-English speakers in English is not only a waste of time but immoral, in that low scores will mar a child's permanent record throughout his or her academic career.

The Department of Education had planned to post scores on the Internet on Tuesday of all public school students and a separate set of results for limited-English students.

The court order prohibits the release of either set of data. But Department of Education spokesman Doug Stone said more than 200 districts had received their results as of last week, "and most have released their data."

"This has thrown a huge monkey wrench into the department's careful planning. We will now examine what our options are and will hopefully reach some resolution," Stone said.

San Francisco, alone among California's urban school districts, refused last March to administer the standardized test in English to its 6,000 students who lacked English-language skills.

Arguing that the test results for non-English speaking students are meaningless and don't belong in their permanent records, San Francisco subsequently won the court battle and is counter-suing the state.

Thursday's ruling "vindicates our position totally and strengthens our case in the cross-complaint, which is saying the entire test is a waste of taxpayers' money and schools' time and is totally useless," said school district spokeswoman Sandina Robbins.

A disappointed Gov. Wilson, who had pushed for a single statewide test - the first in four years - to measure the success of educational reforms such as class size reduction, said, "It's deplorable that one judge and a number of education bureaucrats are so fearful of accountability for how poorly education is being provided in parts of our state, that they are blocking vital information to parents throughout California."

Educators throughout the state also have argued that all results would be skewed because of the inclusion of scores by limited-English students.&lt;

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